After perusing some old (paper!) map bank reports held in the O-Shed, we (Nick D and Tony S) decided to investigate ‘the other side of the road’ at Mt Billy and we found some nice terrain that had not seen an orienteering event for several years. We discovered an excellent assembly area right next to the road and close to the Helena River but realised that the map needed updating.
For the Hard courses, there was some terrain with nice rock and gully/spur detail and good running not far from the assembly area which could accommodate lots of controls, while also allowing for some longer legs to other parts of the map. Our problem became how to set the easier courses, particularly when the approval from DBCA stipulated an ‘exclusion’ area (we never discovered the reason for this) which included some of the linear features suitable for easy courses that we had planned to use.
Our next thought was to look at the Helena River which was dry as a bone until two weeksbefore the event, when all of a sudden the catchment further East released a torrent of water making the river uncrossable. Finally, with some judicious taping and extending the E course further along the road to part of the Marginata map we found a solution. Pity that on the day no-one came to try our VE, however the E was quite popular.
On the H1 course Liam Dufty shot out of the blocks to leave Dad (Craig) and others in his wake over the first 4 short, but tricky controls and then up the 120m climb on the 1.5km long leg from 4 to 5, but perhaps the early effort took its toll as Craig caught up in the first pass through the central detailed area, then pulled away to win by a good 8 minutes.
On other courses Veronika Kubinova had a similar margin in H2, while there were very close results in H3 and H5 respectively, Amy Dufty pipping Paul Dowling by 7 seconds and Helen Post with a 5-second margin over Rob Beattie. H4 was also close, Rachel West the winner by just over a minute from Noel Schoknecht.
All the Hard courses at one stage or another passed through what Nick christened the ‘hand of death’ (see image), a complex watercourse junction with 5 branches around a steep spur. Many thanks to all the helpers from LOST and other clubs. Peter Gillon towed the caravan, Jennifer Binns, Mike Howe and Peter set up the Assembly and Start, while Melinda Richards and Rosalie McCauley operated the computer. Control collectors were Volker Gartz, Nigel Wade, Anna Napier, Ian & Jan Fletcher, Richard Matthews, Peter Gillon and Lara Dale, plus Nick and Tony.
Last but not least, a big thank you to the mapper and course setter Nick Dale and organiser Tony Simpkins.
Results are in Eventor, and routes are available in Livelox.
Photos: (Top) starting at Mt Billy, by Sue Dowling; (bottom) 'hand of death' watercourse junction.
Ngalak kaaditj nidja Noongar Boodjar. Koora-Yeyi-Kalyakool.